Alex Ponca Stock

Biography
Color Relatives is a selection of abstract beaded broadcloth works by Alex Ponca Stock. In this series, the artist explores color and relationships using glass pigment and wool. Ponca Stock is primarily inspired by color field, minimalism and abstract expressionist movements. 

Ponca Stock investigates community, culture, experience and perception in this body of work. Trained as a painter, Ponca Stock abandons this medium to embrace traditional materials and techniques used by the Osage Nation. Compositions are defined by glass beads while color and chroma are explored through the use of broadcloth saturated with pigments. Broadcloth is historically significant as being utilized as a form of currency between the Osage people and early European traders has been used in regalia for hundreds of years by Osage people.

Alex Ponca Stock (b. 1986) is a painter and beadworker from the Gray Horse District of the Osage Nation and the third generation in her family to graduate form the Kansas City Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited by the Denver Art Museum, the First Americans Museum, and the Osage Nation Museum, among others. The artist currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM.

In the tradition of oil painting, the work reveals that color is relative; subject to change and movement based on its surrounding environment. In the tradition of Osage lifestyle and philosophy we can see that color is a relative, alive and imbued with disposition, history and spirit. – Alex Ponca Stock

Education
2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

Exhibitions
2024
Color Relatives, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Voices of the Drum, 2019-present traveling exhibition, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, OK; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO;  First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
Renaissancing the Osage, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, OK

2023
Mapping Sovereignty, 150 years of the Osage Reservation, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, OK

2021
In-Dialog: Artists’ Exploration of Indigenous Spaces, Woodward Park Headquarters, Tulsa, OK
OSAGE 2020: Views from Within, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, OK

2020
Re/Convening, Ahha Tulsa, Tulsa, OK

2018
Y’all 20, Amplify Arts, Omaha, NE

Panels, Talks and Press
2023
Ruby Hansen Murray, The Wonder of Osage Community, Osage News, December 7

2022
A Frame of Mind podcast celebration, panel speaker, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO
Episode 3: A Frame of Mind, podcast guest, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO

2021
Discussion Facilitator for Osage Creatives, Exhibits and Programming with Osage artist Yatika Fields and Andy Klemmer from Paratus Group, Osage Nation Museum, Online
Moderator for Roundtable discussion on fine arts practice in Osage cultural setting, specifically in consideration of major exposure due to Killers of The Flower Moon book and movie, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, OK

Select Special Projects and Residencies
2022
The Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2021
In-Dialog: Artists’ Exploration of Indigenous Spaces, Sites of Conscience and National Endowment for the Arts, Tulsa, OK
Red Cat Goods, Limited edition commission for Grand Opening, First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
In the Absence of Gathering, Anita Fields and Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Tulsa, OK
2020
Hunt, Gather, Grow Virtual Camp 2020, Osage Nation and Osage Nation Museum, Osage Nation, OK
Red Cat Goods, commission for the Hearts of Our People Exhibition, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
4 time Grant recipient, Osage Nation Foundation, Osage Nation, OK
2019
featured artist in symposium, Illuminative Oklahoma and Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK
2011
Fabrica De Pensule, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Press Release
2024 Color Relatives at Richard Levy Gallery